HYDERABAD (India), Aug 9 Malaysian world No 1 Lee Chong Wei hopes a new-found mental toughness will help him scupper Chinese Olympic champion Lin Dan's bid for a record third badminton world title in a row.

Lee hopes to snatch his maiden world crown after taking over as the world's top ranked male player a year ago and he is likely to face a semi-final matchup against Lin.

“This is my prime time to lift the world championship,” Lee told Malaysian media ahead of the world championships, which start in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad on Monday.

The 26-year-old from Penang, whose best world championship run was a singles bronze in 2005, beat Lin in the final of the Swiss Open Super Series in March.

However, Lin, the fiery former world No 1, holds an 11-4 head-to-head record in individual events against his rival, beating him in straight games in this year's All-England final as well as a crushing victory in the Beijing Olympics final.

And the player dubbed 'Super Dan' showed his supremacy over Lee again in May, sweeping him aside while leading China to the Sudirman Cup team title victory.

Lee, who set up a base for his preparations in Seoul, admits that he had a habit of wilting under pressure.

“This time I am more confident of reaching the final,” he told the Hindustan Times.

“Earlier, I used to commit mistakes during crucial points. I used to succumb to pressure as well. I've been working on these since last year.”

Danish veteran Peter Gade is also a threat in the 64-player field, while Indonesia's former Olympic and world champion Taufik Hidayat and China's Chen Jin will also be battling for the title.

Lin opens his title defence against unseeded Israeli Misha Zilberman while Lee faces unseeded German Dieter Domke in his opener.

In the women's section, world No 1 Zhou Mi of Hong Kong and Chinese world No 2 Wang Lin head the field.

The championship will take place under heavy security, having been moved out of New Delhi because of delays in construction of the venue for the Commonwealth Games next October.

Meanwhile, one thousand police officials and commandos, including experts trained to deal with terror threats, have been assigned to the world badminton championships, the local police commissioner has said.

However, the authorities ruled out any militant threat targeting the championships after domestic media reports raised concerns.

“I'd like to dispel some of these rumours floating about,” police commissioner Prabhakar Reddy told a news conference.

“There is no specific input [of an attack],” he said. “However, Cyberabad police are geared up to meet any eventuality.”

The locality around the venue is called Cyberabad.

Indian home minister Palaniappan Chidambaram also told local media there was no specific threat to the event and federal officials had only sent a general alert to local police.

The Badminton World Federation hired security consultants to inspect the venue in February before giving the go-ahead for the championships.

Security in the sub-continent has been bolstered following the ambush of the Sri Lanka cricket team bus in Lahore, Pakistan in March, killing seven Pakistanis and wounding six players.

That incident triggered concerns sport could become a target for more attacks in south Asia. India also remains nervous after militants killed 166 people in a strike on Mumbai in November.—Reuters